But in this case, I’m wrong. I consider Dogs and Cats to be blessings from — well, whomever. Anyone who suggests stoning a dog to death for any reason, much less some ridiculous claim that the dog is a reincarnation of some human, deserves to be stoned-to-death themselves. From Yahoo News:

A Jerusalem rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who insulted the court’s judges 20 years ago, Ynet website reported Friday.

Read the whole thing since I can’t quote much or they’ll probably sue me or order me stoned to death.

You know, folks, I’m a “spiritual” person but not a religious one. Why not religious? Because I haven’t found a single rational religion as yet. And, frankly, most religions have done as much harm as good. Often, more harm. I believe in some vague sort of “God” but, is he or she or it really just me, my sub-conscious mind, or the workings of the matter of the Universe? Or, is there some actual super-being who started it all? I opt for the former explanation.

In any event, anyone who would stone a dog, or cat, or human, for any reason — other than self-defense, should be killed. I have a hard time imagining how a dog or cat would cause a self-defensive situation.

Actually some very orthodox Jews do believe in the reincarnation of souls during Messianic times. That said, there are whack-job Jews just as there are whack-job Muslims, just as there are whack-job [insert ethnic group of choice here]. Since there are more Muslims than Jews, it is reasonable that there are more whack-job Muslims than there are whack-job Jews. And I say all this, AS A JEW.

A friend of mine once told me that in a group above a rather small number of people you will always have a few crazies. This happens with any organization from a small town PTA to national governments. (he called them “F@#$wads” in reference to the church his wife worked at)
One of the jobs of “authority” is to attempt to cull them out, shifting them into a position of little or no power. In the case of my friend it just so happened when the head preacher got sick, the church had no one in charge for quite some time. He said within a few months the crazies started coming out of the woodwork and trying to twist things around. I wonder if this is one of the reasons why historically so many people have put up with dictatorships. They can deal with the local crazies quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, dictators are usually just as crazy. But dictators are usually confined to a palace or fort for security, isolating them from most people and limiting their crazy. It only gets bad when the leader wants his people to join in the crazy. In this case, I hope the local Jewish leaders will push this guy to retire quickly. He sounds paranoid delusional, and guys like that start with animals, and work themselves up to people.

Weird. Nowhere in their Torah, or the writings of their prophets (all parts of the Old Testament) is there anything about reincarnation, and the New Testament says “It is appointed unto Man ONCE to die; after this comes the Judgement.”

Well, at least they’ve got a sense of humor about it, remarking:
Such inventions are a kind of blood libel, and we wonder why the inventor of the story did not continue to describe how we collected the blood of the dog to make our matzah.

Started in October of 2002, Alphecca is an occasional blog of OPINIONS by a libertarian, gay gun-nut living in Vermont. Book reviews, politics, gun stuff, other stuff; it’s all here. Your opinions about my opinions are welcome in the comments and as I always say, thank’s for stopping by.